Everything about Dota 2 - rules, roles, artifacts, creeps
Yuriy SheremetDota 2 is a computer multiplayer online battle arena game, a model of famous DotA map for Warcraft III game in a separated client.
A player commands a hero, collecting experience and gold to buy items. Main objective of the game is to destroy enemy’s Ancient structure protected by the towers. Battles are guided at the map with three lanes guarded by creeps. Creeps are controlled by AI (artificial intellect). Players may get involved into the battles against another team to collect additional experience and gold.
DotA has many heroes. Each of them has its own skin and unique skills. Heroes are classified according to their main attributes: Strength, Intelligence, and Agility. Each hero has these characteristics, but for each point of one of main attribute, damage is increased by 1.
Also attributes influence hero statuses in the following way:
- Each Strength point increases maximum HP by 19
- Each Strength point increases Health Regeneration by 0.03 per second
- Each 7 Agility points increase Armor by 1
- Each Agility point increases Attack Speed by 1
- Each Intelligence point increases maximum mana points by 13
- Each Intelligence point increases Mana Regeneration by 0.04 per second
Primary roles
Carries
Carries are heroes who must farm as much as possible to buy new items. Strength of carries depends upon the items they have. Their power potential reaches its peak at the late game. Carries are the main strength of the team. However, the team should not consist of carries only, as they will impede each other to gain experience and farm gold.
Supports
Supports are the heroes who help their allies. They slow down and immobilize enemies, heal allies, and help their allies in gaining experience and farming gold. Supports also watch the team not to be taken aback. These heroes do not depend on items, that is why they buy items which help team in reaching their objective, e.g. Smoke of Deceit, Animal Courier, Observer Ward and Sentry Ward. Support who stands at one lane with carry hero never last-hits creeps and leaves it to carry hero.
Gankers
Gankers are the heroes who quickly kill enemy heroes. The main objective for Ganker is to interfere enemy heroes with killing or damaging them. Gankers are also extremely important for a team. They prevent enemy carries from boosting, while ally carries farm gold and gain experience.
Secondary roles
Initiators
Initiators are required to start the combat. They immobilize enemies and deal area of effect damage, giving their allies possibility to kill more enemy heroes. Initiators should avoid heroes with high HP rate, and focus on supports and other heroes with low HP rate. Initiators regularly have AoE skills, which inflect several targets.
Pushers
Pushers’ specialization is destroying enemy creeps and towers to finish the game as quick as possible. In this way, enemy carries do not have enough time to boost themselves. Pushers have skills to stop enemy creeps quickly, or to accumulate ally creeps.
Junglers
Junglers are the heroes who can collect experience and farm in the jungles. In this way they allow one of the allies stay alone at the lane, getting all experience and farming more gold. As a rule, Junglers have skills to control neutral creeps or to kill them quickly. The advantage of taking Jungler in team is to gain more experience than enemies (if that does not interfere with quick development of the allies).
Roamers
At the early game, Roamers perform function of Gankers. They can quickly move across the map appearing in different lanes and killing enemy heroes. At the early game they do not farm creeps.
Tanks/Durable
These heroes have good defense, so they can sustain greater damage and lose less HP. They undertake damage and protect other heroes with lower defense and HP.
Nukers
Heroes with fast cooldown skills.
Artifacts
Artifacts are important game elements. They give owner different bonuses and even additional skills. Each hero can carry up to 6 artifacts. Some items may combine to create more powerful artifact (in most cases the recipe is required).
Any hero can buy most of the items, but not all of the items may be used to create artifact. Besides, heroes cannot use items bought by other heroes with some exceptions (for example, consumables). Items are sold at Main shops, Side Lane shops and Secret shops.
Main shops are located at the respawn point near the Fountain. Side Lane shops sell the same items as main shops do. They help heroes keep the lane for a longer time. Secret shop sells unique times, which are presented neither in Main shop nor in Side Lane shop. These items have special mark. Players can buy items at all shops (including shops at enemies’ base). Players can also use courier to send it to shop and buy all necessary items or artifacts.
Players should not forget to use quick buy panel. Draw the item to the panel to buy it. Quick buy panel has several useful options. When you draw an item to the panel, it automatically shows components of the item. Besides, when you have enough gold to buy some of the items, you hear sound of ringing coins and the item is lightened with golden frame. It makes easier for a player to control process of collection and buying items and consumables. It is better to buy components of the artifact, not the artifact itself. When hero dies, he loses some gold which he could use for buying required items.
Creeps
Creeps are DotA creatures controlled by the computer. There are ally, enemy and neutral creeps in the game. Ally and enemy creeps (also known as lane creeps) respawn at 00:00 and start to move along the lanes to the bases of teams. Neutral creeps do not participate in battle and stand in the forest.
Ally creeps attack enemy and neutral creeps, heroes, and enemy building which they face while moving to the base. When the enemy barracks are destroyed, ally creeps on this lane are improved to super creeps or mega creeps (depending on the destroyed barracks). There are melee creeps, range creeps, and siege creeps in the game.
Melee creeps have increased health point rates, appear in bigger groups, but deal less damage. Range creeps deal more damage to other creeps, but less damage to heroes. Siege creeps deal greater damage to buildings, have increased health, and respawn with each 6-th creep wave.
Neutral creeps are strong and dangerous creatures which respawn in the forest. They are one more way to collect experience and gold. Some heroes and artifacts have skill to control neutral creeps and use them in combat against enemies. They spawn at 00:30 if there are no heroes or controlled units near their camp, and none of the heroes has Wards at the territory of respawn.
If neutral creeps are provoked by a hero or controlled units, creeps follow them for 7 seconds, and then return to their camp. Neutral creeps are classified as small, medium, large, and ancient. Roshan is also a neutral creep.
Techniques to control creeps
Last-hitting and denying
It is extremely important to last-hit and deny creeps in DotA game. Why should player last-hit his own creeps? The matter is that the last hit brings more experience and gold. That is why when you last hit ally creeps, enemy heroes cannot farm. Besides, in this way you also come closer to your tower. Just be attentive not to lose the towers when enemy heroes attack them. It is also important to kill enemy creeps before ally creeps kill them. When ally creeps last-hit enemy creeps, you get less gold. Enemies will not be able to deny your creeps. To attack ally creeps, click A button before hitting a creep.
Heroes get less experience and gold, if they farm creeps near each other. Experience is shared among heroes staying in 1200 range from the killed creep or enemy hero, and gold is shared among heroes staying in 1000 range from the killed unit. Supports who farm with Carries never last-hit creeps, leaving them for Carries, because they require farm to boost themselves.
Hero receives gold for killing enemy hero as well. Each ally hero who damaged killed enemy hero for the last 15 second before his death receives part of the reward. If hero last-hits enemy hero, he receives bonus experience and gold. If tower or creep last-hits enemy hero, gold is shared among all heroes who participated in combat. If only one hero deals damage to enemy hero before tower or creep last-hits, this hero gets all gold. If none of the heroes deals damage to killed hero, gold is shared among all ally heroes equally.
In some cases it is possible to deny even ally heroes. When you deny ally hero, enemy heroes get neither experience nor gold. It is possible to deny towers as well. Enemy team gets less gold when kills the denied tower.
As it was mentioned before, it is important not to push the lane too eagerly, to lead creeps closer to your tower or at the same distance from your tower and enemy tower. In this way the tower still protects you, and you may not be afraid of ganking. To achieve this, you need to last-hit enemy creeps and deny ally creeps to maintain game balance. Pull creeps to keep them near the tower. Always act according to current game situation. Push enemy creeps if they come to your tower too close and too often. If you stay too far from your tower, pull creeps, or deny more ally creeps. To get an access to the Side Lane shops, push your lane. A player can also deny creeps using the model of his hero staying on their way.
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Pulling and Double-Spawning
Pulling of creeps has been mentioned above. This is a technique used by a hero to lead neutral creeps from their camp (respawn camp) to ally creeps lane. Pulling helps heroes avoid damage from neutral creeps and not to use abilities for farming creeps. When player pulls, he also prevents enemy heroes from pushing the lane or killing creeps. Pulling is the most effective when done after double-spawn.
Double spawn is the situation when two or more packs of creeps stay at neutral creeps camp. Pull creeps so that new creeps appear at the camp (respawn time is 1 minute). Respawn requirements for neutral creeps have been mentioned above. Double-spawning helps player increase number of creeps at certain camp, to kill them and gain more experience and gold for the shorter period of time at one place.
Double-spawning also requires much attention to timing. Group of neutral creeps can be pulled between 51 and 53 second. To pull the creeps, hero needs to provoke them (attack or come close to a group of creeps). When creeps follow the hero, he needs to pull them far away from the camp. Here is a trick: creeps need to be close to hero, otherwise they go back to the camp. If everything is done correctly, creeps are far away from the camp when respawn time comes and new creeps appear.
The range of camp is always different, so it is important to pull creeps as far as it is possible. If there are some units at the range of the camp when respawn times comes, creeps do not appear.
Yuriy Sheremet – Expert in mobile gaming and esports among shooters and MOBA games.
At EGamersWorld, Yuriy, as in 2020 when he joined the portal, works with content, albeit with adjustments to his area of responsibility.